Vole has risen early to see the sun rise. His friend, Mole, is curious; he’s never seen the dawn but has heard it is very beautiful. So the two friends walk down to the lake, where they meet their friends Rabbit, Squirrel and Sparrow and sit and watch the sun reach up over the horizon gradually rising higher and higher till morning has well and truly arrived.

This deceptively simple story has a clever twist that is only gradually revealed to young readers and listeners: Mole is blind and so seeing the day break is actually not nearly as straight forward as one might imagine. Instead of being able to use his eyes, Mole relies on the descriptions provided by his kind friends. And what descriptions!

“Here comes the sun!” said Vole.
“I can just see the top of its head.
It’s like the soft yolk of a fried egg.”

The sun rose right out of the lake.
“Now the clouds are like scoops
of raspberry ice cream,” said Rabbit.
“And blueberry!” added Vole,
“swirled with steaming custard.”

Photo: jcookfisher

In fact the whole book is brimming with delightful descriptions highlighting senses other than sight.

Mole felt the damp mist in his fur.
He heard the crackle of leaves under his feet.
Mole sniffed the air. He could smell the lake.

The evocative text from Jeanne Willis is wonderful to read aloud and listen to; this picture book is one that will work very well as an audiobook. The fact that the two best friends, Mole and Vole, sound so alike draws listeners in to empathizing with Mole’s situation – not only does it give the prose text a certain rhyming cadence, listeners have to actually attend to listening, just as Mole does.

The text deserves high praise, but so do the illustrations by Sarah Fox-Davies. They are beautiful and worthy of savouring. Drawn in gentle pastels, matching both the colours of day break and the glowing spirit of friendship between the animals, Fox-Davies’ illustrations will make you want to set the alarm to see the sun rise yourselves (that is, of course, if your young children don’t wake you up themselves that early!)

The first involved me preparing 8 balloon by filling them with 4 different substances (I used rice, muesli, sand and water), so that there were two tied balloons with each filling. The girls had to choose a balloon, feel it and then find the matching one in terms of what the filling felt like (here’s the original post from Jojoebi).

The second activity again involved matching, this time 4 different smells in 8 small bottles. I used samples from The Body Shop for the different smells and soaked vermiculite in the scented oils so it would be easy to empty the bottles and reuse them at a later time for another project. If your bottles or jars had wider necks you could use scent-soaked cotton wool instead (here’s the original post from Jojoebi).

The girls loved the touch game but found the smells in the bottles unpleasantly strong. They were quite overpowering so by the time we reached our third pair our ability to distinguish the scents was somewhat hampered by having had our nostrils blasted by the earlier smells – if you try this at home, perhaps just go for a couple of pairs at a time!

Given that Mole’s Sunrise is all about the ability to see images through the use of other senses, it’s fantastic that this lovely book is also available in a format specifically designed for blind children. Tactile picture carvings and audio description (by Jim Broadbent) bring the book alive – more details can be found here and here.

I’m reviewing Mole’s Sunrise today as part of a blog tour, one of many events in the coming months celebrating Walker Book’s Picture Book Picnic campaign. This campaign aims to encourage a child’s love of reading by sharing books with family and friends as you would a picnic. During the blog tour there will be a chance to win copies of all the books highlighted during the campaign.

If you’d like to find out more about the Picture Book Picnic, visit the dedicated website at http://www.picturebookpicnic.co.uk/ where you’ll be able to find tips on reading, enjoying and interacting with books. Over the coming week’s there will also be exclusive content from Walker Book’s talented picture book writers and illustrators. Indeed, the campaign is being supported by a stellar cast of ambassadors: Bruce Ingman, Petr Horacek, Viviane Schwarz, Polly Dunbar and Chris Haughton, some of whom I’m hoping to interview in the not too distant future!

Walker Books is very kindly offering two copies of Mole’s Sunrise to readers of this blog. To enter this giveaway all you need to do is leave a comment on this post.

If you want extra chances to win this book set you can:

Tweet about this giveaway

Mention this giveaway on your blog

Link to this giveaway from your Facebook page

For any of the extra entries to count you must leave a separate comment here on this post saying what extra chance you’ve gone for (eg tweeted about the giveaway etc).

This giveaway:

is open worldwide

is open until 6am (UK time) 11th April 2011

The winner will be selected randomly with the help of random.org, and announced here on Playing by the book sometime during the day on 11th April. Good Luck!

Hello
I came across this brilliant website as a result of a link to the Living Paintings website. Jeanne Willis & Walker Books very kindly allowed us to publish an accessible version of Moles Sunrise on the same day as it was made available to sighted children. It is already a very popular book in our free library for blind children and adults.

Jane Willis

Jane Willis

sarah allcoat

This book sounds delightful. there’s nothing better than an amazing book to share with your children. Unfortunately my daughter is long past this stage, sadly, but I have a lovely niece whom I love to share books with. Thanks for the lovely giveaway xx